It's an old thread. People argued that the Protag and the MC can be split in a movie. They used Shawshank Redemption and other movies for examples. I'm curious if other people believe the same. I always thought the MC and Protag were the same until I read this thread. It had me wondering if it's true they can be split or not.

It's an old thread. People argued that the Protag and the MC can be split in a movie. They used Shawshank Redemption and other movies for examples. I'm curious if other people believe the same. I always thought the MC and Protag were the same until I read this thread. It had me wondering if it's true they can be split or not.

I believe Pirates uses this model.

The writer said that the chick is the hero/protag and Depp is the Main Character.

At the script stage on PIRATES the chick was the protagonist and all three of the men were equals. After casting, that changed.

Casting can change the intent of a story. I have a Script Tip on the movie BASIC - the script had a female lead with a male secondary character who helps her. They cast Travolta as the secondary character and Connie Neilson as the lead... and that turned Travolta into the lead... except his character can not be the lead if the story is going to work. She didn't even make the poster! It ruined the film. Now, you can look at that film and "decide" that Travolta was the lead and she was the protagonist - but that's not how it was at the script stage.